​Traveling hundreds of miles per hour, thousands of feet in the air, a routine flight for an airline cabin crew can be a source of profound dread for passengers suffering from aviophobia (fear-of-flying). Throw in the x-factor of a few unexpected bumps in the ride, and some potential customers will check out of air travel completely. That’s why popular online turbulence predictor MyFlightForecast™ has recently unveiled a customized Passenger Briefing Portal service for aviation companies, including airlines and charter operators, giving them a new tool to help set travelers at ease. The Portal will aggregate various weather reports to produce a turbulence index for the airline’s upcoming flights.

“Our goal is to make people feel safer traveling by air,” says Captain Timothy Griffin, Founder of MyFlight Forecast’s New York-based parent company, FlyHome. “We do that by giving them access to the kind of sophisticated weather and turbulence forecasts that pilots themselves rely upon. Knowing what to expect from your flight conditions removes that area of uncertainty where an overactive imagination can do its worst.”

MyFlight Forecast’s data includes information on precipitation and cloud cover, weather advisories, fleet tracking and a specific turbulence forecast for any flight in the United States. As much as one quarter of the American population suffers from some degree of flight nervousness, with 6.5% (>20 million people) being diagnosed with aviophobia. The term “turbulence forecast” alone generates over 22,000 Google searches per month. Particularly for smaller charter companies, maximizing sales means being able to access customers their competitors can’t.

“Through our iOS, Android and Alexa apps, as well as MyFlightForecast.com, we already helps tens of thousands of people every month who are taking it into their own hands to do this research,” says Griffin. “By working with us, airlines and private charter operators will be able to offer their customers a direct link to a customized Passenger Briefing Portal on our site, complete with the airline’s own branding and data pertaining to the routes they fly. We can pretty well guarantee clients will see significant uptake on the offer to check out the Portal from their customers. People are desperate to know this kind of information.”

Captain Griffin is more familiar than most with the needs and behaviours of aviophobes. He’s the principle instructor behind theFlightAnxiety 101™ course, which has an astounding success rate alleviating pre-flight anxiety, while the FlyHome brand has received positive coverage in many major news outlets.

“We’ve had great success going directly to travelers with MyFlight Forecast, and we’re excited to follow-up on that success by partnering with airline and charter companies,” says Griffin. “Everyone should feel safe in the sky.”